Railway as Border Technology: The Khedivial Line and Ottoman–British Rivalry in the Eastern Mediterranean

Abstract

This article examines the Khedivial (Abbas Hilmi II) Railway from Alexandria toward Tripoli on the basis of British archival materials, adopting a historical and international-relations analytical framework. It reconstructs the technical and operational anatomy of the line, demonstrating how design choices determined performance and cost parameters. Set within the security economy of the pre-1914 Eastern Mediterranean, the railway is interpreted as a border technology along the Egypt–Cyrenaica corridor: it advanced toward Sollum while articulating with caravan routes, seasonal fairs, and barley shipments, yet operated under British surveillance, Ottoman military sensitivities, and Italian concessionary ambitions. The study further situates the project within Egypt's broader railway development following the 1854 Alexandria–Cairo line (the first operational railway in the Middle East) and its subsequent extension toward Suez, clarifying how a khedivial private line both complemented and diverged from State Railways by projecting authority into the western desert corridor. By illustrating how infrastructure inextricably bound sovereignty, commerce, and strategy, this research contributes a systematic, document-based operational history and recasts the line as a critical nexus of late Ottoman-British rivalry and Mediterranean border governance.